Nature worship
Nature worship is a spiritual focus on the individual's connection to the natural world and reverence towards it. Mainstream Smurfs Media Since Mother Nature usually serves as a constant provider of all forms of material blessings in the Smurf Forest in the cartoon show, the Smurfs show their appreciation for her generosity and benevolence in various ways. They are also very protective of everything that exists in their forest since it is their home and that they value all forms of life that live in it, even if it is humans like their constant adversary Gargamel who also lives in the same forest. Empath: The Luckiest Smurf stories In Smurf society in the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series, nature worship revolves around the concept of male and female being united together so that they could fall in love and marry and create families, through which the virtues of righteous living could be instilled upon future generations. The idea that creatures could be born homosexual or bisexual is seen as a perversion of nature's intended design, and even a benevolent being such as Mother Nature could not allow such creatures to continue living if their relationships do not produce offspring even with her help, as she is regarded by the Smurfs as the mother of fertility. Admittedly, Mother Nature does make mistakes, as in the case of giving Rudolph the reindeer a shiny red nose, but as Empath and the Smurfs soon found out, the nose became an important asset instead of a handicap when it helped Nicholas the toymaker deliver his presents to all the good boys and girls on Christmas Eve, not to mention that it also attracted the attention of a female reindeer. Thus, her axiom which she lives by is "if it works, don't fix it". In the Mirror Universe, its version of Mother Nature is revered by its Smurfs as more of a sex goddess than a granter of fertility, and is given greater deference than its version of Father Time, who is rather adversarial in his relationship to Mother Nature instead of harmoniously cooperative as with the normal universe counterparts. The Smurfs of that universe don't so much protect the forest as they control it to whatever ends they desire to use the forest for. Hero: The Guardian Smurf stories Nature worship is the main religion of the Smurfs in the HERO: The Guardian Smurf story series, although some of the Smurfs such as Abloec and his later wife Serana have converted to Christianity, and Hefty is more of an atheist. LD Stories/Expanded AU In The Light and Dark Series, which crosses over with the Expanded Animated Universe, the Smurfs collectively engage in nature worship, holding reverence for both Mother Nature and Father Time as the models of guidance besides their village leader. While the majority of characters are heterosexual, they discover through the course of time that some of their friends and village residents are of other sexual orientation, which prompts further explanation from Mother Nature. As she explains, her creatures are generally designed for heterosexual attraction to procreate when ready, but sometimes there are flaws in her designs. These flaws include infertility, over-abundant fertility, sexual disfunction, growth stunting, premature growth and development, incorrect sexual assignment (such as hermaphroditism), etc. To make up for these flaws, a smaller portion of every creature's population have non-heterosexual instillment, such as asexuality, bisexuality, transgender/transexuality, homosexuality, etc. This portion of the population is normal and come into creation in order to maintain some sort of balance to counter-act her normal creature's flaws. They have every right to exist as her normal creations because, without them, there would be great chaos and widespread sorrow amongst all life. Hauvon Expanded Universe Nature worship exists in the HEU in the form of what humans recognize as mostly-extinct polytheistic religions. In centuries past, many gods and spirits were venerated in groves, temples and natural settings, and magical beings were seen as spirits of nature, the representatives of Mother Nature herself. Humans and Smurfs are part of a teeming world of both magical and mundane creatures. Magical creatures did and still do celebrate natural features and cycles like the Summer Solstice, however most humans (at least in the part of the world where the story takes place) have converted to monotheistic religions such as Catholic Christianity a few centuries ago. While the cycles of nature and the natural world are still important, as most people still owe their livelihoods to things like weather, floods, and sun, the outright worship of nature or the older polytheist religion is strictly frowned upon. This partly explains why some creatures are shy about letting humans know of their existence. While some humans converted willingly to the new religion, others were given a more violent ultimatum and their nonhuman or magical allies were vilified. Smurfs venerate nature, and can interact directly with beings like Mother Nature, so this is natural for them. They also appear to have some Christian beliefs and celebrate Christian holidays. It's assumed that because they are so different from humans both physically and socially, the focus of their religion is not the same as it is for humans. Aeon of the Champion (AoC Universe) Various societies engage in nature worship, or at least, what can be considered as such. *'Humans, high elves and dwarves' worship the Light, via the Church of the Holy Light. They believe that all mortal races are inherently flawed and thus unworthy of the Light's power, but by grace, the Light loves them anyway, and only wishes that the its work is fulfilled. To this end, many humans - and members of other races - choose to enlist themselves in the Order of the Holy Light, doing battle on its behalf by stamping out corruption wherever it is found. *'Night elves '''are a druidic people, and the best example of nature worshippers in the AoC Universe. Skeptical of the arcane the night elves instead turn to caring for the natural environment they have observed since the days of Mythos. The '''Sylvanian Brotherhood '''is an organisation of druids that oversee this work. *'Sun-walkers worship the Sun goddess (Sol), though this Helionism is generally viewed distinctly from true nature worship. *'''Orcs, prior to their corruption at Lucithel's hand, were a shamanic people who worshipped the elements. Nature worship is often done with the intent of of pleasing the deity (subject of worship), though this can have wide-ranging consequences. The Sun-walkers are very dedicated to their goddess, and during the Middle Age a solar-powered war nearly broke out between them and the blood elves over the use of the Sun's energies (the Sun-walkers were using it for worship, the blood elves as a source of arcane power for their cities.) Worship of the elements is also dangerous because it can draw the unstable Elemental Avatars out of the Primus dimension and into the physical realm, causing widespread destruction (as seen with Ignitor, the Fire Avatar). It is very hard to get them back into their plane afterwards. Category:Religions Category:Smurf customs Category:Open to Community